#sutoku

[jigokuyeah]

An article by Matthew Meyer author of The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons and The Hour of Meeting Evil Spirits

[greenekangaroo]

The Oni and the Tengu- an Elder Chouji tale

Chouji has left the nin-village of Konoha, and this was meant to be an easy meal. 

---

He would eat well tonight.

He'd been tracking them for days. They were a small group, only five in number, and they moved quickly for being civilians.

It didn't take long to ascertain that these were not civilians.

That…made him feel a little better. He hated that it did, but he had given up the easy luxury of knowing that his victims were destined for death, marked whether he was their end or not.

At the moment the knowledge soothed him but it didn't blunt his hunger.

He waited for the perfect moment. There always was one because humans were predictable.

Sure enough, it came when the biggest of their number, already half drunk, swaggered off into the bushes to have a piss. There was no challenge in slitting his throat.

The oni came up on the smart one second, the leader who wore a blue sash. That one went down without a fight, windpipe crushed by his claws and the fall of his body muffled by the thick carpet of leaf litter on the the edge of their chosen clearing.

Number two wore glasses and she managed to squeak before he closed his teeth around the back of her neck. A single crushing bite and she wasn't a concern anymore.

Numbers three and four got wise. They lit torches, pulled pilfered explosive tags from hidden pockets and readied kunai with crookedly sharpened edges. None of this helped them. They died screaming but as deep in the forest as they had camped, there was no one else around to hear but the animals.

The animals were smart enough to stay away.

He ate the big one and the woman, the first because he needed the meat and the second because he'd always preferred the flavor. For a moment, sitting at the fire his meal had built, he felt a pang. His older brother would be able to identify where each of the dead bodies came from- could tell their blood types, their favorite foods, what illnesses they might have had or poisons they were carrying.

Chouza always had a much more delicate palate.

The other three bodies would have to go to waste and that was a shame but leaving them alive simply hadn't been an option. The last thing he needed was word of attacks getting to the wrong ears.

It was during the cleanup- the burning of the bodies with a fire jutsu, the sorting and appraising of their goods- that he heard a sound come from the wagon.

He paused in his inspection, tilted his head.

The sound came again- a little muffled thump.

He carefully stood and inhaled deeply. He smelled wood and blood, the scent markings of a fox that had passed by a day or so before, and bird.

The smell of bird was both distinct and very strong.

Carefully,  cautiously, he approached the wagon. His meals had styled themselves as traveling entertainers. It was a disguise that would hold under the inspection of a village's security force, but not a trained ninja. He knew about the drugs in the packets in the false bottom, of the rare blue paper smuggled from the Country of Birds. He knew about the cache of pilfered jewelry- mostly silver- which had been sewn into the woman's bedroll.

The thump came again.

He strode to the wagon and threw the tarp off.

The eyes that blinked at him from the tight, chakra-woven net were as inhuman as his own.

"You can't eat me I'm too bony." The child said, trying to be brave. The way his scarlet nose twitched told the oni otherwise.

The oni pinched the bridge of his nose. He'd only stopped tracking the group for a few hours the night before, picked it up that morning.

How the HELL had they had they time to kidnap a-

"How did they trick you, tengu?" He asked.

"I wasn't tricked!" the little yokai snapped. Then he curled up. "I fell."

"You fell." He said flatly.

"I fell, okay?! I was too far away from the nest and a wind current caught me-"

"Seven hells you're a child." the oni said, eyes wide.

"I'm a hundred and three I'm not a child!" the tengu snapped.

The oni looked behind him at the fire, burning low. "Do you know what direction you came from?" A thought. "And how far were you pulled?"

"I- southeast? And." The tengu looked chagrined. "I'm not sure. Pretty far off course."  

Southeast could only mean Mount Iwaki. It was easily three days' travel as a ninja ran, perhaps two weeks at a civilian's steady pace. Quite a journey for anyone to make, much less a juvenile tengu. the oni smelled a lie, but there were more important things to be concerned with.

Like that net.  

The oni leaned down. "Hold still."

The tengu did as ordered and the Oni grabbed hold of the net. The embedded chakra began to burn but despite the quality of the jutsu (stolen? Most likely) there was no leaving a mark on diamond-hard skin. The oni adjusted his claws and he tore. The net fell to pieces.

The tengu carefully shifted back in the wagon. He eyed the camp- and the piles of ash that had once been his captors- with trepidation. "Thank you." He said. "You're not going to eat me?"

"I eat humans, boy, not birds." The oni said. "What were they going to do with you?"

"I don't know." The tengu said, hopping up on the edge of the wagon and cautiously stretching his wings. "The man said something about a high price."

The oni growled, low and dangerous. The tengu flinched.

"You didn't fall off course." The oni said. "You were running away."

"No I-"

The oni gave the tengu a look. He wilted a little. "Yeah I was." He whispered.

The oni grinned, a wide grin that stretched the flaps of skin on his cheeks. "That's okay. I'm running, too. Is there anyone worried about you?"

The tengu shifted a little from foot to foot, talons making tiny gouges in the wood. "My older sister, maybe. The others in our Parliament probably don't care much."

Left unsaid, 'or they would have come to find me.'

"You're in luck." The oni said lightly. "I'm traveling southeast."

The tengu gave him a suspicious look. "No you aren't."

"Well I am now." The oni said. "but first-" he shot the ashes a look. "I want to know what they intended to do with you."

"Can't ask a dead human questions." The tengu pointed out.

"Not without a Yamanaka, anyway." The oni murmured.

"A what?"

"Nothing. Can you do anything about those feathers, kid?"

"'m not a KID." The tengu said, and twitched his nose.

The bright scarlet of his skin faded, the feathers and claws disappeared. In their place a long-nosed boy with black hair the texture of straw sat on the wagon's edge and glared at the oni.

"It'll have to do." The oni said.

"What like you can do better?" The tengu asked.

The oni lifted an eyebrow and a moment later the tengu, eyes wide, said, "Okay, that's better."

"Eat humans, remember?" The completely ordinary man with the crow-talon marks on his cheeks offered his arms. The tengu-boy looked at them.

"I'm going to find out who was going to buy a tengu and I'm going to eat them," the man said, "with or without your help. But if you want to make it home, you're going to need more than luck and being able to fly. I saved you, and according to oni law that makes me responsible for you at least until I can get you back to your parliament."

The tengu bit his lip. "You're really not going to eat me?"

"No birds." the man said.

"I'm not a bird. I'm Sutoku. Iwaki Sutoku." The tengu-boy offered his own arms and the man lifted him up onto his shoulder. "Hey, I can feel your horns!" the boy said.

"Careful not to hang on to them too tight or you'll mess with my genjutsu." The man said.

"Your gen-what?"

The man chuckled and Sutoku could feel it through his bones. "You have a lot to learn, Iwaki Sutoku."

The tengu huffed. "Easy for you to say. So teach me something, man-eater. What's your name?"

"Me?"

The oni kicked a cloud of dirt onto the remains of the fire.

"Chouji. Akimichi Chouji."

---

((Lone Oni and Tengu is Go. Tengu have a lot of different origins in Japanese lore and religious myth, so like the other monsters in Bakemono I’m mixing and matching what works best. Sutoku’s family being  called a parliament comes from the fact that a group of owls can be called a parliament. In this ‘verse, all Tengu give their last name as their mountain of birth- hence, Iwaki Sutoku. Mount Iwaki IS a genuine mountain in Japan.))

[fujiwara57]

Insei 院政  "loi du cloître”

L'Insei 院政 - "loi du cloître" désigne le système de "gouvernement retiré" des anciens empereurs qui, bien que s'étant officiellement mis à la retraite et étant devenus moines bouddhistes, continuaient dans les faits à exercer le pouvoir.

Durant l'ère Heian 平安時代 (0794 -1185), le gouvernement était aux mains du clan Fujiwara-shi 藤原氏, qui s'était maintenu au pouvoir via des mariages avec la famille impériale.

Fujiwara no Michinaga 藤原道長 (0966-1028), était le grand-père de trois empereurs, le père de six impératrices, et le grand-père de sept autres épouses impériales. En qualité de régent il a contrôlé le gouvernement du Japon de 1016 à 1028 à la place des empereurs en titre.

Fujiwara no Tadamichi 藤原忠通 (1097-1164) a été régent des empereurs :

Toba (74) 鳥羽天皇 (1103-1156)

Sutoku (75) 崇徳天皇 (1119-1164)

Konoe (76) 近衛天皇 (1139-1155)

Go-Shirakawa (77) 後白河天皇 (1127-1192)

Pendant la rébellion de Hōgen no ran 保元の乱 (1156), Tadamichi se rangea aux côtés de l'empereur Go-Shirakawa. Le nom de la rébellion correspond à l'ère Hōgen 保元.

En 1087, l'empereur se mit à la retraite afin d'échapper à l'influence du régent Fujiwara no Morozane 藤原師実 (1042-1101), inaugurant ainsi le système de l’insei. Durant ce temps, les "empereurs cloîtrés" - portant les titres d’In 院, ont réellement régné pendant que se succédaient des empereurs sur le trône. En abdiquant ainsi en faveur de leurs fils, en se retirant dans des temples ou des monastères, et en s'entourant d'une cour d'aristocrates efficaces et n'appartenant pas au clan Fujiwara, ils récupéraient le vrai pouvoir. 

Appelés In no Chō 院庁, les bureaux des empereurs retirés pouvaient continuer à édicter ses ordres  qui étaient appliqués en lieu et place de celles de l'empereur en titre. Les empereurs cloîtrés avaient aussi leur propre armée, le Hokumen no Bushi 北面の武士. La création de cette armée a conduit à la montée en puissance du clan Taira-shi 平氏.  

Du fait des nombreuses abdications au cours du XIIe siècle, il y eut parfois plusieurs empereurs cloîtrés en même temps. Dans ce cas, le plus ancien portait le titre de Chiten 治天 et gouvernait réellement. Il est important de comprendre que le Chiten n'était pas au pouvoir au lieu de l'empereur en exercice, mais il exerçait son pouvoir de patriarche de la famille impériale. 

Cependant, à la mort de Toba et avec la rébellion de Hōgen no ran 保元の (1156), ce n'en n'était pas moins un exemple d'opposition directe entre l'empereur et l'empereur retiré (1). Ce titre fut porté par trois empereurs retirés qui couvrent la quasi-totalité de l'existence de l'insei :

L'empereur Shirakawa (72) 白河天皇 (1053-1129, r. 1073-1087, In 1087-1129)

L'empereur Toba (74) 鳥羽天皇 (1103-1156, r. 1107-1123, In 1129-1156)

L'empereur Go-Shirakawa (77) 後白河天皇 (1127-1192, r. 1155-1158, In 1158-1192) La fin de l'Insei de Go-Shirakawa a été marquée par la guerre civile de Gempei kassen 源平合戦 et la montée de Minamoto no Yoritomo 源頼朝 (1147-1199) comme premier shōgun 将軍 de Kamakura 鎌倉.

(1)  Sutoku-tennō (75) 崇徳天皇 (1119-1164 r. 1123 - 1142), succéda à son père Toba-tennō, mais fut contraint par ce dernier à céder le trône à son frère cadet Konoe-tennō (76) 近衛天皇 (1139-1155 r. 1142 - 1155). Quand Konoe mourut, à 17 ans, il fomenta, avec l'ancien Ministre de la Gauche Fujiwara no Yorinaga 藤原頼長 (1120-1156), dit le Mauvais, la rébellion de l'ère Hōgen 保元 (1156). Vaincu, il fut exilé dans la province de Sanuki no kuni 讃岐国 dans l'île de Shikoku 四国.

[gotojobin]

Sutoku Tennō #Sutoku #Tennō #SutokuTennō #崇徳天皇 #すとくてんのう Afterwards, for many years, disaster upon disaster struck the capital. Go-Shirakawa’s successor, Emperor Nijo, died suddenly at age 23. Storms, plagues, fires, droughts, and earthquakes all pounded the capital. Imperial power weakened. Clan rivalries set into motion by the Hōgen Rebellion escalated. Many of Go-Shirakawa’s allies were killed in battles, and the country stepped closer and closer to all-out civil war. In 1180, the Genpei War broke out. In 5 bloody years, the power of the imperial court had vanished, and the Kamakura shogunate took over Japan. All of this was attributed to Emperor Sutoku’s vengeance. Sutoku finally returned to the capital during the Meiji era. In 1868, he was enshrined as a kami in the Shiramine Shrine in Kyōto. The Takaya Shrine in Kagawa also enshrines one of the stones onto which Sutoku’s blood flowed during the rainstorm before his cremation. Despite this, there are still rumors that his curse might still linger. In 2012, when NHK broadcast the drama Taira no Kiyomori, an earthquake struck the Kanto region right at the moment when Emperor Sutoku transformed into an onryō.

[gotojobin]

Sutoku Tennō #Sutoku #Tennō #SutokuTennō #崇徳天皇 #すとくてんのう Emperor Konoe remained sickly and childless his whole life. He passed away without an heir in 1155 at the age of 17. By this time, Sutoku had his own son. He saw an opportunity to recover his standing. Sutoku and his allies claimed that the throne should pass on to Sutoku’s son. Instead the imperial court declared that Toba’s fourth son would become Emperor Go-Shirakawa. When Toba died the following year, this dispute escalated into a miniature civil war known as the Hōgen Rebellion. The war was decided in a single battle. The forces of Go-Shirakawa were victorious. After the Hōgen Rebellion, Go-Shirakawa’s forces were merciless. Those who fought against the emperor were executed, along with their entire families. Former Emperor Sutoku was banished from Kyōto and forced to spend the rest of his days exiled to Sanuki Province. He shaved his head and became a monk, devoting himself copying holy manuscripts to send back to Kyōto. The court feared that the deposed Sutoku would attempt to curse them. It was rumored that he had bitten off his own tongue and wrote the manuscripts in his own blood, imbuing them with his hatred for the merciless imperial court. The court added insult to injury by refusing to accept any of his manuscripts. In 1164, Sutoku passed away, defeated, deposed, and humiliated—and most importantly full of rage for the imperial court. When news of his death reached Emperor Go-Shirakawa, the emperor ignored it. He ordered that nobody should go into mourning, and that no state funeral would be held for such a criminal. LEGENDS: After his death, strange things began to happen. Sutoku’s body was set aside while its caretakers awaited funeral instructions from the emperor. After 20 days, his body was still as fresh as it had been on the day he died. While his coffin was taken to be cremated, a terrible storm rolled in. The caretakers placed the casket on the ground to take shelter. After the storm passed, the stones around the casket were soaked with fresh blood. When his body was finally cremated, the ashes descended upon Kyōto in a dark cloud.

[gotojobin]

Sutoku Tennō #Sutoku #Tennō #SutokuTennō #崇徳天皇 #すとくてんのう TRANSLATION: Emperor Sutoku APPEARANCE: Sutoku Tennō is one of the three most famous yōkai to ever haunt Japan. After he died, he transformed—some say into a terrible onryō, some say into a great tengu—and inflicted his wrath upon the imperial court at Kyōto. Along with Tamamo no Mae and Shuten dōji, Emperor Sutoku is one of the legendary Nihon San Dai Aku Yōkai—the Three Terrible Yōkai of Japan. Along with Sugawara no Michizane and Taira no Masakado, he is one of the legendary Nihon San Dai Onryō—the Three Great Onryō of Japan. ORIGIN: Prince Akihito was born in 1119 CE, the first son of Emperor Toba. At least that was on the official registry. It was an open secret, known by everyone in the court, that Akihito was actually sired by the retired former Emperor Shirakawa. Akihito was not well liked by his “father,” who constantly referred to him as a bastard. His true father Shirakawa may have been the former emperor, but he still wielded considerable power in his retirement. When Prince Akihito was 5 and Emperor Toba was 21, Shirakawa forced Toba into retirement. Akihito became Emperor Sutoku. After Shirakawa died in 1129, retired Emperor Toba began orchestrating his trap against Emperor Sutoku. He convinced him that the cloistered life of retired emperor was much better than being the actual emperor. He suggested that Sutoku adopt Toba’s son Prince Narihito, and retire. In 1142, Sutoku finally did so. Toba oversaw the process, and made sure to record that the emperor was retiring and passing the throne on to Narihito instead of his own progeny. This ensured that Sutoku would wield no power over the young emperor, nor would any future son ever become emperor. The 3-year old Narihito became Emperor Konoe, and the retired Emperor Toba wielded all of the power behind the throne. Toba sent Sutoku’s allies to distant provinces, and filled the capital with his own allies. There was nothing Sutoku could do.

[milehighdad]

お遍路七十九番天皇寺。Ohenro No.79 Tennouji. 八十場駅（Yasoba Station)から徒歩５分。崇徳天皇の霊を鎮めるために作られた社。普通の明神鳥居の左右にやや小さい脇鳥居を組み合わせた珍しい鳥居。全国に３箇所しかない。

[destine-a-mourir]

Poem Seventy-Seven | Swift waters parted...

瀬をはやみ Se wo hayami 岩にせかるる Iwa ni sekaruru 滝川の Takigawa no

われても末に Warete mo sue ni 逢はむとぞ思ふ Awan to zo omou